Arcadia
Arcadia or
ArkadÃa (
Greek Αρκαδία; see also
List of traditional Greek place names) is a region of
Greece in the
Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character
Arcas.
Arcadia has its present-day capital at
Tripoli. It forms the largest
prefecture on the Peloponnesian peninsula. It currently covers about 18% of the entire peninsula, although it once extended to about 20 to 25% of the peninsula.
The prefecture has a skiing resort on Mount
Maenalus, the
Mainalon, located about 20 km NW of Tripoli. The other mountains include the
Parnon in the southeast, the
Artemisio, the
Saita, the
Skiathio, the
Lykaia and
Tsiberou.
The
Greece Interstate 7 (E65) freeway, which was extended after 1997 and in 2003, runs through Arcadia on a north-west to south-east axis and nearly forms in the southwest the end of the freeway. A thermoelectric power station which produces electricity for most of southern Greece, operates to the south of
Megalopolis, along with a coal mine.
Arcadia has two tunnels. The
Artemisio Tunnel opened first, followed by the tunnel east of Megalopolis; both serve traffic flowing between
Messenia and
Athens.
The chief cities and communities in the prefecture include
Tripoli,
Astros,
Vytina,
Dimitsana,
Lagkadia,
Leonidio,
Leontari,
Levidi,
Megalopolis Paloumpa and
Stemnitsa.
In agriculture, potato farms, mixed farming, olive groves, and pasture dominate the plains of Arcadia, especially in the area around Megalopolis and between Tripoli and Levidi.
Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770 - 1843), a general in the
Greek War of Independence (1821 - 1832), lived in Arcadia.
*
Ancient Olympic victors:
**
Androsthenes of Maenalus, won gold in
420 and
416 BC**
Euthymenes of Maenalus, won gold in
400 and
392 BC*
Mimis Fotopoulos (April
1913 in
Zatouna Gortynias -
1986 in Athens)
*
Kostas Karyotakis (
October 30,
1896 â€"
July 20,
1928 in
Preveza)
The climate consists of hot summers and mild winters in the eastern part, the southern part, the low lying areas and the central area at altitudes lower than 1,000 m. The area primarily receives rain during fall and winter months in the rest of Arcadia. Winter snow occurs commonly in the mountainous areas for much of the west and the northern part, the
Taygetus area, the
Mainalon.
Due to its remote, mountainous character, Arcadia has always been a classical refuge. So during the
Dorian invasion, when
Mycenaean Greek was replaced with
Doric Greek along the coast of the Peloponnes, it survived in Arcadia, developing into the
Arcadocypriot dialect of
Classical Antiquity. Arcadocypriot never became a literary dialect, but it is known from inscriptions.
Tsan is a letter of the
Greek alphabet occurring only in Arcadia, shaped like cyrillic
И; it represents an affricate that developed from
labiovelars in context where they became
t in other dialects.
Tsakonian Greek , still spoken on the coast of the modern prefecture of Arcadia, in the Classical period considered the southern
Argolid coast immediately adjoining Arcadia, is a descendant of
Doric Greek, and as such is an extraordinary and much noted example of a surviving regional dialect of Classical Greek. The capital of
Tsakonia is the Arcadian coastal town of
Leonidi.
One of the birth-places reported for
Zeus is
Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia.
Lycaon, a cannibalistic
Pelasgian king, was transformed into a
werewolf by Zeus. Lycaon's daughter was
Callisto. It was also said to have been the birthplace of Zeus' son, Hermes.
Arcadia remained a rustic, secluded area, and its inhabitants became proverbial as primitive herdsmen leading simple
pastoral unsophisticated yet happy lives, to the point that
Arcadia may refer to some imaginary idyllic paradise, immortalized by
Virgil's
Eclogues, and later by
Jacopo Sannazaro in his pastoral masterpiece,
Arcadia (1504); see also
Arcadia (paradise).
The phrase
Et in Arcadia ego goes back to a
1647 painting by
Nicolas Poussin, also known as "The Arcadian shepherds", where it appears as an inscription on a tomb. This phrase is said to be an anagram which, when the letters are rearranged, spells out the message "I tego arcanum dei", which in English translates loosely to "I conceal the secrets of god". This is the meaning given in Baigent and Leigh's book "
Holy Blood, Holy Grail", which is the main inspiration for Dan Brown's "
The Da Vinci Code".
In the
20th century, Arcadia experienced extensive population loss through emigration, mostly to the
Americas. Many Arcadian villages lost almost half their inhabitants, and fears arose that they would turn into ghost towns. Arcadia now has a smaller population than
Corinthia. Demographers expected that its population would halve between 1951 and the early
21st century.
In the mid to late
20th century a power plant began operating.
*
Greek National Road 7*
Greek National Road 33, N
*
Greek National Road 37, Cen, S
*
Greek National Road 74, NW, N
*
Greek National Road 76, W, SW
*
Arkadiki Radiophonia Teleorassi - ART
Arcadia has 4 provinces:
*
Province of Gortynia -
Dimitsana*
Province of Kynouria - Leonidi
*
Province of Mantineia - Tripoli
*
Province of Megalopoli - Megalopoli
See also:
List of settlements in the Arcadia prefecture*http://www.arcadians.gr
*
University of Patras, Arkadia-Project*
Arcadia, Greece*
Unknown Arcadia*http://flyingbrick.freeyellow.com/arcadia.htm
*http://www.arcadianet.gr/en/
*http://www.tripolis.gr
*http://www.arkadia.ca
*In German:
**http://www.leonidion.de/arkadien.htm
**http://www.sungaya.de/schwarz/griechen/geographie/arkadien.htm
**http://www.gedichte.vu/arkadien.html
